Happy National Cow Appreciation Day!

I'm finding conflicting information on the EXACT date for Cow Appreciation Day, one website says it was July 11th, but Facebook told me it was July 15th.  We're celebrating it on the 15th.

Here are the cows we are appreciating this summer:

Baby Blair!  Isn't she adorable!  She's Danny's bottle calf, she was orphaned this spring when her mom (Danny's cow, "Bernie") got sick and died.

These are our bred-heifers:  The black-white faced cow is Danny's 3rd heifer, Belle, and technically Blair's older sister.  She's a DOLL!  Love her to pieces!

The red-white faced Hereford-looking cow is a replacement heifer that belongs to my parents.  She spent the winter in the 4-H pen and is SUPER friendly, so the boys have broke her to lead and will show her--just for fun--at the fair.

These are the boys' steers:  The black steer is Danny's.  His official name is "Bugsy" because when he was a little calf, his eyes were too big for his head and it looked like he had "bug eyes".  The Hereford is Drew's purebred calf from his fancy, purebred cow that he bought two winters ago.  "Chuckie" won Grand Champion Hereford at the fair last summer.  Hopefully he will do o.k. this year, as well.

We are a stock and custom feeding cattle operation, so we are in the business to MAKE BEEF, not fluffy show cattle.  We feed a ration to put on weight, not grow hair, so we never do very well at cattle shows, but we "hold our own".   It's a fun time nonetheless, and the kids are learning a lot about animal husbandry and RESPONSIBILITY.  So in the end, they really are winners!